For Erk Russell, it's a different field of play

Former coach huddles with friends these days

Posted: Saturday, September 04, 2004

By Anthony Dasheranthony.dasher@onlineathens.com

STATESBORO - Death and taxes aren't the only two certainties of life. At Snooky's, a well-known local eatery across the street from Georgia Southern's football practice field, world-class banana pudding and friendly conversation are also standard fare.

Here, local philosophers convene to escape the heat and the ever-present sand gnats to discuss subjects of great importance to the majority of mankind.

For folks like former Georgia Southern Eagle coach and longtime University of Georgia assistant coach Erk Russell, along with other "retired" members of the Statesboro community, their day would not be complete without a trip to Snooky's to ponder life's true meaning.

On this day, Russell sat at his customary table, sipping sweet tea and perusing the headlines in the local paper, a break of sorts before taking in a round of golf later that afternoon.

It was also a time to reflect.

Twenty-four years have passed since Russell ended 17 seasons as Georgia's defensive coordinator to take over the fledgling football program at Georgia Southern in what former Bulldog coach and athletic director Vince Dooley still calls "the best recruiting job I've ever seen."

"I was thinking about that on the way over here," Russell said. "There's no way that 24 years have passed since 1980. I can remember it just like it was yesterday, I just can't remember what I did yesterday.

"That's amazing, isn't it?"

At 77, the years have taken a physical toll on Russell, who has undergone two hip surgeries along with several other operations - though he jokes that they have kept him "patched together."

"I've had just about every joint fixed except the one that really needs fixing," said Russell, whose sense of humor has not been dulled by his years away from the game.

Erk, as friends will attest, is still the same Coach Russell he always was. Not a whole lot has changed.

Passion for golf

Russell didn't begin playing golf on a whim, but at the urging of Dooley, his former boss.

"They used to have a media day where the coaches have to play and I was forced to play," Russell said. "They had rules like if you get in a trap, you could throw it out. Well, one day I threw one in the hole from the trap, and I was a hero. One of the biggest trophies I've got is a golf trophy."

However, it still wasn't until 1990, a year after his retirement, that the sport became a weekly part of his life.

"I'm a shark," Russell said with a wink. "I can handle pretty much any 80- or 90-year-old man out there."

Robert Brannen shook his head.

Brannen is one of Russell's golfing buddies and another Snooky's regular who has seen the coach's golf expertise .

"He (Russell) beats me all the time like a drum," Brannen said.

Russell rolled his eyes.

Apparently, all those years of hearing Dooley poor-mouth to the media about Georgia's upcoming football opponents translates to talking about his golf game as well.

"I've got a 26 handicap and I can't shoot to it," Russell said. "You're supposed to make what, a 98? I just can't do it."

Said Brannen, "Now Erk, you shot a 94 the other day with us."

"No I didn't," Russell retorted. "But for a non-athletic event, golf is a great social game."

That's when Bruce Yawn chimed in.

Longtime Bulldog fans may remember Yawn, a former three-year letterman Georgia who started at left guard for the 1968 SEC Sugar Bowl champions. Yawn is the proprietor at Snooky's.

He's also been known to play a round or two of golf with Russell.

"Coach, do you remember the first day we went out there and played? You had been sneaking off from practice, I said let's play tomorrow and the temperature dropped. It must have been 40 degrees, you came in that morning and I said it was too cold, we're not going out, we'll go this afternoon," Yawn said. "So when I went by to pick him up he said no, we don't need to go out there. I said you're going, get in my truck.

"You had somebody working on a cabinet in your house and he said let me take care of this first. Well, the guy left a mess so (Erk) got out a vacuum cleaner and it just destroyed my image of him. There he was vacuuming up a mess before we went to play golf. That's just a picture of him you don't think you'll ever see."

Russell says his golf game is just as strenuous on the eyes.

"I had my second hip operation a couple of years ago, but I can't use that as an excuse," he said. "I'm just bad."

Signature cigars

For many, Russell was as famous for his postgame cigars as he was his signature bald head. It's not a habit he intends to give up.

He just has to watch out where he smokes them. It's definitely not around his wife Jean.

Yawn attests to that.

"I went to visit Coach one day after one of his surgeries and it was cold. I asked Jean where he was, and she said he's sitting outside," Yawn said. "So I go back and he's on the back porch, freezing to death, wrapped up in a blanket and everything, smoking a cigar."

"I've got a stocking cap and a coat by the back door," said Russell, who concedes Jean has a rule that he cannot smoke his stogies inside their home.

"That's another image you have of him, Coach and his cigars," Yawn said. "But he's whipped like the rest of us. There ain't a bit of difference."

Erk the motivator

Former Georgia fullback Chris McCarthy never played defense for the Bulldogs but wishes that he had.

"Probably, Coach Russell was the motivator more than anything," McCarthy once said. "He was always joking around and had stories to tell, but you could tell he really loved the game. Whether you played for him on defense or were on offense as I was, you'd do anything for that guy.

"You could ask any of the guys who were there and they would probably say that Russell was the best coach I ever had. Even though I played offense, I'd say so."

McCarthy isn't the only one who feels that way.

In an informal poll of 25 Bulldog fans between 30 and 45 years of age, Russell's name was given as one of the favorite three figures in Georgia football history after Herschel Walker and Dooley.

"You just put me in great company, Georgia's greatest running back, one of the greatest players ever and the man's who's got the reputation of being the best Georgia coach ever and then the best athletic director," Russell said. "That was a fun 17 years that I spent at Georgia. They weren't all great years but it was a great period of time and I have to say was a great experience for me.

"But leaving Georgia and coming here and having good things happen was a great experience also. I wouldn't say one was greater than the other, and I wouldn't say that the eight years I spent coaching in high school wasn't the greatest. It was all fun."

Sore at Southern

Russell won't say it publicly, but friends insist his feelings were hurt by the way Georgia Southern coach Mike Sewak handled the firing of his son, Rusty, the Eagles' long-time defensive coordinator, after last year.

But Russell said that's not the reason he won't be attending today's game at Sanford Stadium between the Bulldogs and Eagles.

According to Russell, he and Jean already had plans to go to their second home in Fernandina Beach, Fla., near Amelia Island.

"We've actually got some good friends who are coming in for the weekend," Russell said. "But I might swing over to Sammy's Lounge to watch it there."

It's not that Russell isn't interested.

You don't spend a combined 26 years at two schools and not keep close attachments to both programs.

"I've kinda got mixed feelings. I want to see both of them do well, but I would think under normal circumstances that Georgia Southern doesn't have much of a chance to beat Georgia," he said. "But on the other hand, what a great opportunity it is.

"I kind of always wanted to be in that position with the opportunity myself, but the years just didn't work out that way. We didn't get an opportunity to play Georgia until I was already gone."

Russell will be in Athens two weeks from today.

That's when Georgia will be honoring its teams from 1954, 1964, 1974, 1984 and 1994 in conjunction with the Sept. 18 game against Marshall.

"I still get to Athens and go to maybe one game a year," Russell said. "I wanted to go to the reunions, especially since the 1964 team was our first one at Georgia and we kinda felt like we had to play good, and doggone it if we didn't."

Russell admits there are days when he misses the excitement of coaching and working with young players.

Then again, retirement has its good points, too.

"The great thing about my life today is I don't have a routine," he said. "We're actually spending about as much time in Fernandina and Amelia Island. We still call this home, but more and more we seem to spend more time down there."

Russell's other endeavors include his position on the board of directors at Eagle Bank, and he also writes quarterly column for Statesboro Magazine.

"That doesn't seem like much time, but it takes me that long to try and correct all of my grammatical errors and do the story that I'm trying to write. I don't envy you guys having to meet deadlines every day."

Golf is a lot easier, although even there, Russell has to pace himself.

"If I get to the point where I play two or three days in a row, I have to rest the next day," he said. "I hate to admit that, but it's true.